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Category Archives: tour

Sup! We’re entering the last few days of the “FLOORTWENTY” coupon code’s availability as well as the 15% off the TORCHE albums we released. Holla at the Robotic Empire – Online Store if you’ve been slacking on this, as it all ends in just a couple days and is a great cheap way to get some mega essential heavy tunes!

Related, some footage has surfaced of FLOOR‘s performance at All Tomorrow’s Parties in London this past week, definitely check it out here.

Unable to keep Steve Brooks (and crew) out of the UK, TORCHE will be hitting Jolly Ol’ England and the mainland Eurozone for a phat stack of tour dates this Sept:

Hot on the heels of the release of his encompassing The Spectrum of Distraction 2xCD+digital release on Robotic Empire, Berlin-via-Montreal’s AIDAN BAKER will further fill the pages in his passport! Here are the latest tour dates from easily the most prolific artist we’ve ever worked with:

Baker is touring in support of January’s The Spectrum of Distraction 2xCD+digital release, on which he collaborated with 17 other percussionists to create a whopping 96 (!) tracks, intentionally established to be played on “shuffle”. Contributing drummers include current and former members of SWANS, THE JESUS LIZARD, SLOWDIVE, KILLING JOKE, JESU, GODFLESH, LOCRIAN and many more.

The Spectrum of Distraction 2xCD is physically available now from Robotic Empire, and digitally via pre-orders from iTunes, Amazon and others for the official January 17th street date.

GODS & QUEENS are touring Europe, again. If you can, please go see them and then punch Jamie Getz in his fat head for never touring the damn states like a wimp and making us sit on these dust-collecting but totally awesome LPs. The jerk!

Seriously though, Ben the bassist is awesome and I’m sure whatever sucker they found to play drums is alright too. Go see these dudes, Euros!!

TORCHE is one of the few bands that we’ve been alongside for the entire ride, from inception up to present activity. We love this band, they are seriously awesome dudes who write seriously catchy, heavy music. It always feels good to post updates in regards to TORCHE and today we’re happy to announce their two full-length albums have been newly re-pressed on vinyl.

Meanderthal is the album that took TORCHE from the underground to the semi-aboveground. It was on many best-of lists in 2008 (including the #1 spot in the fantastic Decibel Magazine). As it turned out, this ended up being their final album with 2nd guitarist Juan Montoya* and the end of the first era of the band. We ultimately outdid ourselves (and many others) with the first layout/packaging for this thing, with two die-cut tri-folding LP jackets attached together…. and while we would’ve loved to keep it in print that way, it just wasn’t financially feasible. So in an effort to keep one of our favorite albums in print, a new and somewhat simplified version of Meanderthal has been newly re-pressed.

Now packaged in a standalone gatefold jacket, Montoya and Aaron Turner’s original artwork has been mostly kept intact, and overall it still looks pretty damn killer (photo proof). We’re glad there was a way to keep this album in print, as it truly is stellar! 2000 more of this have been pressed, with standard black vinyl available along with three “color in color” versions of oranges, silvers and yellows, as well as a red/white/blue tri-blend) . The ones photographed above compliment the layout quite well, and we’re happy to announce that this is now available again in the Robotic Empire – Online Store.

In addition to Meanderthal finally being available on vinyl again, we’re now up to the fifth(!) pressing of the Self-Titled Reissue debut LP. This time around we kept the color vinyl (relatively) simple for a change and went with a Jah-inspired rasta tri-blend! 1000 more copies for this pressing (500 black, 500 rasta jawns), also available now in the Robotic Empire – Online Store.

++ Both Meanderthal and the Self-Titled Reissue LPs are now nicely priced at $11.99 each, about 4 bucks cheaper than before for S/T and $8 cheaper for Meander. ++

All of this recent TORCHE activity is culminating just in time for a massive summer tour (dates below), hot on the heels of guitarist/vocalist Steve Brooks “other” band FLOOR just completing their first proper US tour in eight years! We recently re-pressed the FLOOR Below & Beyond discography 8xCD set for their tour and still have some copies in stock. Seeing as how the band may be (relatively) dormant for a while with TORCHE getting busy again, we’ve just discounted the 8xCD FLOOR set to $29.99 , which can be found now in the Robotic Empire – Online Store. We also have a slew of classic FLOOR t-shirts available and are now down to the last half dozen (or less) copies of the ultramega 10xLP, 1×7″, 8xCD, 32-page-booklet deluxe vinyl edition… Seriously: last chance to dance on that beaut!

As we mentioned above, TORCHE is hitting the road for a substantial US tour, co-headlining alongside BIG BUSINESS (plus HELMS ALEE or THRONES, depending on what part of the country you’re in). The “new guy” 2nd guitarist (and longtime Robo-ally) Andrew Elstner** is firmly in the band now and they are officially on fire once again! Wisely witness this commotion IRL:

TORCHE-related footnotes: * Juan Montoya is now playing in MONSTRO, who recently signed to Vagrant (wtf?) and are going on tour with KYUSS and THE SWORD in September/October. Congrats Juan!** Andrew Elstner was in the criminally underrated RIDDLE OF STEEL and is simultaneously now in the also criminally underrated TILTS. Check them out ASAP.

In addition to all the TORCHE related news, we have also expanded our already outlandish store-wide sales! For the rest of the month, 99% of the 7″ EPs we carry are reduced further to only $1.99 apiece. That now matches our store-wide CD sale of just $1.99 per CD, CD-R, 3″miniCD, etc, etc etc. We got a little crazy there, but are only remaining this insane until the end of the month as we’ve actually cleared a good amount of much-needed space. Still lots of great items available at dirt cheap prices (including newly discounted CANNABIS CORPSE sweatpants), please check out the Robotic Empire – Online Store for all of our ridiculous discounts.

We’ve also got a meaty update as far as new items & restocks go! One big score this time around is the original BLACK TUSK demo EP, The Fallen Kingdom, finally pressed to wax by our homies at Hyperrealist. Eight songs, badass Baizley artworkin, raw sludgey goodness as only the dirty South knows how to properly do… and oh yeah, some logo-matched yellow vinyl copies too if you’re quick! Chop chop.

In addition to that jammer, we’ve got new stock from ANNIHILATION TIME (the II LP reissue with limited bonus 7″), CAPSULE‘s righteous new No Ghost album on ltd color vinyl, CHURCH OF MISERY and EYEHATEGOD essentials from Emetic, the unstoppable FELL VOICES LP from Gilead brethren, horribly difficult to obtain Throne imports (FLESHPRESS, LUDICRA, UNEARTHLY TRANCE), lotsa skramz (DANSE MACABRE, DOLCIM, HER BREATH ON GLASS, etc) for all the screamos out there, KICKING SPIT‘s awesome debut 12″, PYGMY LUSH‘s unbearably good Old Friends album on import wax (with slightly different artwork), and heaps more killer stuff.

Last but not least, a quick update on a few current projects: both THOU and PG.99 will see new vinyl on Robotic Empire in early August! We’ve got a “megaEP” for THOU at the plants now titled The Archer & The Owle, and while we may obviously be biased, it absolutely rules! The PG.99 release is the long-overdue vinyl treatment of their Singles collection, along with a repress of the Document #8 album, both to coincide with their (now sold out) pending reunion at Best Friends Day in Richmond this August. We’re hoping to have those for sale sometime in July or August, depending on when things wrap up.

Shortly upon their return we’ll have a substantial new release from these burly boys titled The Archer & The Owle. More info forthcoming, but in the meantime… check out these fiends in action if you live on that side of the pond!

Floridian heavy trio FLOOR are about to embark on their first proper tour in over eight years. Since disbanding, FLOOR‘s overdue notoriety has slowly grown, due in part from laying the foundation for guitar player/vocalist Steve Brooks’ non-stop activity in TORCHE.

Reuniting to celebrate the release of their massive Below & Beyond discography/box set, FLOOR returned for a few key shows over the past year to an overwhelmingly positive response. As a result, the band is now hitting the road for the first time since 2003. In regards to the tour, Brooks had the following to say:

“It’s a celebration. Celebrating our 19 years together, apart, back together, apart and back together again! Dropping bombs like it’s Floorld War III!”